showing typical styles of communication and behavior.
By Bill Wagner
Measuring Up
Different strokes
Applying metrics to the “people” side of franchising
A
s CEO of a firm that creates behavioral metrics and
benchmarks, I’m constantly
conducting research into the
behavioral patterns of successful people.
The question that always provokes the
most telling information for a franchisor
is: “If you had a do-over and could reselect any of your current franchisees,
how many of them would remain part
of the company?”
We asked this very question to hun-
ages, net promoter scores, etc. Although
often overlooked, the most important
metric is the quality of work franchisors can predict or expect from their
franchisees. Ultimately this leads to the
quality of work franchisees can expect
from their employees. Productivity
drives revenues, and sound productivity drives profits and royalties. It’s all
about people.
Fortunately for franchising in general, the benefits of personality testing
Styles of Communication and Behaviors of Different Personalities
Personality Factor Favorite Question
Characteristic Behavior Behavior if low on scale
Dominance
Why
Dominant, competitive
Accepting
Sociability
Who
Sociable
Analytical
Relaxation
When or what
Relaxed
Driving
Compliance
How
Compliant, conscientious
Independent
dreds of franchise executives in the form
of a survey. The results stated that an
average of one third would be kept as
franchisees, one third were mediocre at
best, and one third were outright failures. Clearly, this was a telling conclusion about room for improvement in
the franchisee selection process.
Perhaps it’s the perceived ambiguity
of measuring a job candidate’s personality that discourages franchising from
applying metrics to the hiring process.
If franchisors are on the fence about
investing in a new piece of equipment,
they are well-served by calculating the
potential return on the investment. Or,
if they’re having trouble reducing sales
cycle time, they might analyze their
sales margins. A variety of monthly and
weekly reports help franchisors make
decisions with greater confidence. Yet
there’s never been strict emphasis placed
on measuring the financial impact of
people decisions.
Franchising is all about metrics:
royalties, growth, conversion percent-
are being realized at an increasing rate.
It’s been only 10 years since the industry
began looking at behavioral assessments
as a cornerstone of its operational definition. Now franchisors’ eyes are open
wider to the stunning impact the right
personality makes when placed in the
right position.
The people metric
So what happens when a franchisor has
five franchisees with virtually identical
situations (all paid the same fee, have
virtually identical build-outs, similar locations, and the same training), yet three
are performing at much higher levels?
This type of scenario screams personality mismatch, which helps explain
the challenge that comes with hiring the
right franchisee. Really learning who
franchisee candidates are is paramount
to learning almost anything else. Behavioral analysis measures personality by
looking at four basic factors: dominance,
sociability, relaxation, and compliance.
The table lists each personality factor,
Each personality type renders a completely different franchisee. Take one
trait for example: relaxation. The scale
for relaxation (or work pace) runs the
gamut, from the tortoise to the hare.
Scoring on the high side of relaxation
(the tortoise) tends to coincide with
franchisees who are calmer, more methodical, and patient professionals who
can do repetitive tasks and never get
anxious. However, go to the opposite
side of relaxation (what we call “drive”)
and you’ll find franchisees who work
with a high sense of urgency, enjoy
multi-tasking, and feed off pressure.
Grow Market Lead
Human
resources
Getting the people side right
When it comes to getting the people
side of your business right, there is a
better way: to measure the personalities
of the applicants or incumbents, as well
as the job roles. As a loyal proponent of
sampling, I extend this offer: Send an
email to [email protected] and write “I am a member of
the 3% club” in the subject line. You’ll
receive two complimentary personality
assessments. (They will arrive as links by
email.) The first will specifically measure
the behavioral requirements for any position you have in mind, and the second
will measure your own personality.
Surely you must wonder how I can
make this offer. It’s like this: I know the
value of this process and I know that only
three percent of you will have the curiosity
to follow through. Hence, the “3% club.”
For those of you with any question
about the value of person ality assessments, remember that the people in your
organization making the least amount
of money have the greatest impact on
the retention of your customers. n
Bill Wagner is CEO and co-founder of
Accord Management Systems Inc. Based
in Westlake Village, Calif., the firm assists
franchisors and other industry professionals
get the people side of business right through
behavioral assessments. Contact him at 800466-0105 or [email protected].
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